Buddrow_Wilson

Interesting enough I have actually done this a number of times because some of my original CDs are scratched up and I can't rip all the songs from them. . Would anyone argue that downloading music for that purpose is wrong?

Disclaimer: Yes, I have also downloaded music that I don't have a CD for

lunachick

I've not downloaded music because it takes too damned long on my dial-up, BUT I have had friends make me up cd's of music they have selected for me as a kind of "various artists" package. Same with tapes before we could make our own CD's.

BECAUSE of those tapes and discs, the music industry has made more money out of me. I have bought cd's and records based on what was given to me, as I wanted to hear more from a particular artist that I would have never even heard of otherwise.

Sharing music encourages sales. Everyone wins.

Buddrow_Wilson

Also with the current system only the "industry" really decides who will get a chance to become successful artists. With peer-to-peers there is no risk in downloading songs from groups you never heard of. More than half of the mp3s I have on my hard drive are from groups that you would never find at wal-mart or best buy. Like has already been mentioned, I think musicians should get back to the days of making their money from performing (which many actually do today, record companies retain almost all the profits from album sales).

Monkeybot

I think that's a great point. I've discovered loads of new music thanks to filesharing services, some of which I've later had to search high and low to find a CD.

I think filesharing can have some real benefits for music artists.

daemon

Simple: the CD manufacturer has included with the "CD" some form of copy protection preventing you from ripping the CD.

excreationist

All music CD's can have the music turned into mp3's by *someone* in filesharing land, but many CD's make it impossible for average people to make mp3's (for their portable or car mp3 players that can store hundreds/thousands of songs, etc). (As a last resort you could connect an audio CD player with your computer, preferably with a digital cable)

Jimmy Higgins

I think I've had issues here and there with burning, though, I've usually blamed the computer, not the CD. I've also noticed some CD's don't like being burned onto a hard drive, but that went away.

excreationist

Sometimes music companies deliberately try and make it hard or "impossible" to rip CD's.... an example of a CD that tries to do this is Robbie Williams' Escapology. (another link)
(This also happens with software CD's, such as games)